Sermon.982
See # 479, 931
“Renewing Mind & Will”
Romans 12:1-2
From the pulpit of Bayview Baptist Church, Sunday July 15, 2001
When I was younger, I thought about the question, “Why am I here, or what is my purpose in life?” a great deal.
I was raised in a rural traditional Southern Baptist Church, and for the most part the preachers I grew up under preached the Word of God without apology.
Often times, the pastor would say something like this at the time of our Invitation response at the end of the sermon: “All of you who would like to know for sure that your sins are forgiven and that you will go to heaven when you die, I want you to stand up and come forward. If you come to the cross and repent of your sins, you can receive Christ by your personal faith and trust in Him.”
Eventually, I became one of those people who responded to a similar invitation and my life was changed so drastically that I began to understand my purpose in life.
Yes, Jesus came into my heart and into my life.
From that moment on, that empty place that once existed in my life was filled with God’s power and I began making plans in my life that would open up the right doors in education and experience, which would eventually place me in the position of pastor in a local church.
I really believe with all of my heart that when Jesus comes into our hearts, God asks us to do something.
What God asks us to do is our text found this morning in Romans Chapter 12 and verses 1 & 2.
Romans 12:1-2
The Bible teaches us that we are to be transformed, and we are to be changed.
That’s what we need today, a spiritual change, a moral change, and God calls all of us to change in total surrender to His Son, Jesus Christ.
What are the terms or conditions that God lays down for us if we want to change our lives?
If you think about life in general, we surrender things in our lives all the time.
When we have surgery, we surrender our trust in the surgeon who will perform the surgery.
When we fly in an airplane, we surrender to the pilots and the ground crew who prepared the airplane for flight.
So, what are the terms or conditions in surrendering our lives to the Lord Jesus Christ?
First, God asks us to surrender our minds.
That means not only what we think, but also how we think.
Some people believe that when you come to the Lord Jesus Christ, you have to leave your mind behind, but our faith is not irrational, and Jesus will stand the litmus test of any scientist, mathematician, or any other intellectual.
Whatever we see and hear is repeated and reinforced in our minds.
The Bible says, “As a person thinks in his heart, so is he.”
What do you think in your heart?
If you have your mind on Christ every day and you have surrendered your mind to God, then the mind of Christ will be in you.
To conquer the disease that has the ability to eat away at your mind, you have to learn how to develop new ways of thinking by making a deliberate dedication of your lives to God.
If you will do this, the promise is that you will develop in time the ability to think like the mind of Christ.
Right now, today, Jesus is looking for people who will turn their mind over to Him and become His Light and His Glory in a world that desperately needs to be anchored in a personal love relationship with God.
So, God asks us this morning to surrender our minds to Him for in the giving of yourself to God you enhance your act of worship.
God also ask us to surrender our wills.
Our wills are powerful, aren’t they?
Before Jesus helped or healed anyone He asked, “Will you…?”
I’m asking you this morning, “Will you allow Christ to come into your life and dominate your life, and become the Lord of your life?”
“Will you?”
That’s the simple question Jesus is asking of you too!
On the closing page of the Bible, in the book of Revelation, Jesus is still asking, “Will you?”
“The Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And let him who hears say, “Come!” Whoever is thirsty, let him come; and whoever wishes, let him take the free gift of the water of life” (Revelation 22:17).
When you come to Jesus, that’s the beginning of your life.
When you come to Jesus, the dominant feature in your life will be your love and compassion for others.
You’ll often go out of your way to help someone in need.
When you’re doing God’s will, God Himself will be the One who will confide in you and make his covenants known to you, as He directs your paths to do more and more of His will.
Have you surrendered yourself unconditionally to Jesus Christ?
Have you given Him your mind and your will?
There’s a story of a man whose face was hideous.
He was so ugly that people ran from the sight of him.
I’ve met a few people like that, haven’t you?
He was a good and kind man, but people were terrified of him because of the way he looked.
The thing this man wanted most in life was to marry the pretty daughter of the town mayor.
So, the really ugly man fashioned for himself a handsome looking mask to hide his ugly face in an attempt to win the love of the mayor’s pretty daughter.
The mask he so cleverly designed was of such good quality that no one realized it was a mask.
Soon, he had won the hand of the mayor’s pretty daughter and they were married.
After a few years of marriage, his wife discovered his secret, that his face was a mask.
She begged him to show her his real face, and because he loved her, he slowly took off the mask, bracing himself for her grasp of horror.
But there was no horror or fear, and as the once ugly man turned to look in a mirror to see his face, he realized that the years of wearing the mask had transformed his ugly face into the handsome features of the cleverly designed mask.
And so it is with our putting on Christ, surrendering to his mind and will; for when we do God’s will we find our lives transformed; changed into His likeness.
By the renewing of our minds and wills, we trade our old patterns of selfish behavior for the new patterns of Christ and His holiness.
Then we are able to test and approve God’s will for our lives; His good, pleasing, and perfect will.
At our time of invitation and response, will you pledge to God to surrender your mind and will to Him.
Will you come and do that today for this is your spiritual act of worship.
Rev. Jimmy Davis
Bayview Baptist Church
5300 Two Notch Road
Columbia, SC 29204
Email: BayviewBaptist@aol.com
Telephone: 803-754-8690
